"In Praise of Polytheism (On Monomythical and Polymythical Thinking)" (german: Lob des Polytheismus. Über Monomythie und Polymythie) is an essay by the
German philosopher
German philosophy, here taken to mean either (1) philosophy in the German language or (2) philosophy by Germans, has been extremely diverse, and central to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries, from Gottfried ...
Odo Marquard
Odo Marquard (26 February 1928 – 9 May 2015) was a German philosopher. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Giessen from 1965 to 1993. In 1984 he received the Sigmund Freud Prize for Scientific Prose.
Early life and education
...
, which was held as a lecture at the
Technical University of Berlin
The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...
in 1978. It was first published in 1979 in an anthology, and was published again in 1981 in Marquard's book ''Farewell to Matters of Principle'' (German: ).
The essay posits that
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
and the
Enlightenment are based on "monomythical thinking", meaning that they only allow one story. It also posits that the
separation of powers
Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typic ...
and the
individual
An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...
have their origin in
polytheism
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...
, and argues that people should embrace what Marquard calls "enlightened polymythical thinking"—the recognition of several stories in the modern world. Marquard was a professor of philosophy and proponent of
scepticism
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
and
pluralism. He belonged to a part of German philosophy that viewed the issues of
modernity
Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...
through
political theology
Political theology is a term which has been used in discussion of the ways in which theological concepts or ways of thinking relate to politics. The term ''political theology'' is often used to denote religious thought about political principled qu ...
, which associates modern political concepts with
theological
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
concepts. Some of the points in the essay have precursors in the writings of
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
,
Erik Peterson and
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
.
"In Praise of Polytheism" has provoked discussion and controversy in Germany. An early critic was
Jacob Taubes
Jacob Taubes (25 February 1923 – 21 March 1987) was a sociologist of religion, philosopher, and scholar of Judaism.
Taubes was born into an old rabbinical family. He was married to the writer Susan Taubes. He obtained his doctorate in 1947 fo ...
, who associated its views with
far-right politics
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
. Several humanities scholars and theologians have responded to the essay by questioning its statements about polytheism, the individual, and pluralism.
Background
Several German-speaking philosophers in the 20th century addressed concerns about the
meaning of life
The meaning of life, or the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "What ...
in the contemporary world by discussing
modernity
Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...
in religious terms. They were inspired by the
secularisation
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
theorem associated with
Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt (; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. A conservative theorist, he is noted as a ...
and
Karl Löwith
Karl Löwith (9 January 1897 – 26 May 1973) was a German philosopher in the phenomenological tradition. A student of Husserl and Heidegger, he was one of the most prolific German philosophers of the twentieth century.
He is known for his two ...
, which posits that there is a continuity between
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and secular politics or science. Schmitt discussed this under the label of
political theology
Political theology is a term which has been used in discussion of the ways in which theological concepts or ways of thinking relate to politics. The term ''political theology'' is often used to denote religious thought about political principled qu ...
, which he summarised by writing that "all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts". The philosophers engaged in these discussions varied in their approaches and solutions to the problems they identified.
Jacob Taubes
Jacob Taubes (25 February 1923 – 21 March 1987) was a sociologist of religion, philosopher, and scholar of Judaism.
Taubes was born into an old rabbinical family. He was married to the writer Susan Taubes. He obtained his doctorate in 1947 fo ...
and
Gershom Scholem
Gershom Scholem () (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kaballah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish Mystici ...
viewed the ancient
Gnostic
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
worldview as a precedent for modern
nihilism
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
, and embraced it; especially Taubes, who initiated discussions about modernity and Gnosticism with his book ''Occidental Eschatology'' (1947), identified as a
modern Gnostic, considered the world to be illegitimate, and wished to see it end in an apocalyptic destruction. Schmitt,
Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin (born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, ; 1901–1985) was a German-American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna, where he became an associate professor of poli ...
,
Hans Jonas
Hans Jonas (; ; 10 May 1903 – 5 February 1993) was a German-born American Jewish philosopher, from 1955 to 1976 the Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Biography
Jonas was born ...
,
Hans Blumenberg Hans Blumenberg (born 13 July 1920, Lübeck – 28 March 1996, Altenberge) was a German philosopher and intellectual historian.
He studied philosophy, German studies and the classics (1939–47, interrupted by World War II) and is considered to ...
and
Odo Marquard
Odo Marquard (26 February 1928 – 9 May 2015) was a German philosopher. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Giessen from 1965 to 1993. In 1984 he received the Sigmund Freud Prize for Scientific Prose.
Early life and education
...
, on the other hand, wanted to legitimise the world as it is and overcome the Gnostic rejection of the world.
Marquard (1928–2015) was a professor of philosophy at the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
. He thought it was crucial to recognise human finitude, promoted
philosophical scepticism
Philosophical skepticism ( UK spelling: scepticism; from Greek σκέψις ''skepsis'', "inquiry") is a family of philosophical views that question the possibility of knowledge. It differs from other forms of skepticism in that it even reject ...
and
pluralism, and opposed the
absolutism found in
German idealism
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
. He was against the search for
first principle
In philosophy and science, a first principle is a basic proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.
First principles in philosophy are from First Cause attitudes and taught by Aristotelians, and nua ...
s and
foundational philosophies, because he was convinced they inevitably end up in conflict with a reality that will fail to meet their demands. Without a monopolistic power in the form of a founding principle, Marquard thought the
individual
An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...
will be able to live in contingency and in freedom, because there is a plurality of possibilities.
Marquard believed a lack of meaning in the modern world had resulted in cultural and intellectual decay, and that the solution was to rediscover systems of meaning from the
ancient world
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
, notably
polytheism
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...
. His intellectual combination of modernity and polytheism was preceded by the sociologist
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
, who in the 1910s had written that life in the modern world, with its different choices and ultimate subordination to
fate
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
, could be understood as a form of
disenchanted polytheism. Weber wrote that this situation made
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
a suitable place to look for models for a modern way of life. Another precursor was the Christian theologian
Erik Peterson, who had discussed the possibility of polytheism as a political theology in his essay "Monotheism as a Political Problem" (1935). Marquard adopted
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
's view that the end of religious
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
marked the beginning of modernity.
Summary
Marquard's essay "In Praise of Polytheism" argues that human
consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
has never undergone a process of
demythologisation
Demythologization as a hermeneutic approach to religious texts seeks to separate cosmological and historic claims from philosophical, ethical and theological teachings. Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) introduced the term ''demythologization'' (in G ...
. The author fundamentally agrees with
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...
', Blumenberg's and
Leszek Kołakowski
Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, '' Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976). ...
's positions on myths, and writes that the story of demythologisation is itself a myth. Marquard argues that myths are stories, and not primitive precursors to knowledge; knowledge is about finding truths, and storytelling is how humans engage with known truths in their
lifeworld
Lifeworld (or life-world) (german: Lebenswelt) may be conceived as a universe of what is self-evident or given, a world that subjects may experience together. The concept was popularized by Edmund Husserl, who emphasized its role as the ground o ...
. From this he concludes that new knowledge will only lead to new myths. He compares the changing of myths to the changing of clothes and writes that the
Enlightenment was not a "
striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "ex ...
"; "mythonudism" is not possible.
The essay posits that myths can be harmful or wholesome: monomythical thinking—allowing only one story—is harmful because it causes narrative atrophy; conversely, polymythical thinking is a
separation of powers
Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typic ...
, where different stories keep each other in check and the "manifoldness" of each individual can exist. According to Marquard, the chief example of a monomyth is that of world history as
progress
Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...
toward
emancipation
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchis ...
. This myth emerged in the mid-18th century
philosophy of history
Philosophy of history is the philosophical study of history and its discipline. The term was coined by French philosopher Voltaire.
In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between ''speculative'' philosophy of history and ''crit ...
and turned "histories" into the singular "history". Marquard calls it the second end of polymythical thinking; the first was the end of religious polytheism. Although the Christian
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
may be polytheistic, the
salvation story is monotheistic and ends in
nominalistic "storylessness".
The emancipation story, writes Marquard, emerged as a failed attempt to secularise the salvation story. Like its precursor, it is a story about how humans will cease to be subject to myths, but eventually became a new mythology itself. After the new mythology emerged, an uneasiness about the monomyth began to show. It expressed itself as an increased interest in the exotic, which included
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
,
orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
, and the
Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism.
Origins
As the Germanic language ...
in
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's works. In his contemporary West, Marquard regards
Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...
, tourism, and
structural
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such a ...
ethnology
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...
as examples of the same "mythological orientalism". Marquard argues that this countermovement never will offer a solution, because it merely submits exotic mythology to the monomyth of progress and thereby confirms its domination.
Marquard says the true solution is "enlightened polymythical thinking": the modern world began when monotheism was disenchanted, which also led to the "disenchanted return of polytheism" in the form of the political separation of powers and the reemergence of the individual; the latter had existed under the separation of powers of ancient polytheism, before it was formulated under the threat from monotheism. Marquard believes when people recognise that myths are stories, it becomes possible to identify modern polymythical thinking, which exists in fields like the scientific study of history and in novels. For philosophy to break with the monomyth, he argues, it must allow dissent and tell stories again, defying charges of
relativism
Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. Ther ...
and scepticism.
Publication history
Marquard gave "In Praise of Polytheism" as a lecture at the
Technical University of Berlin
The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...
on 31 January 1978 as part of the colloquium ''Philosophie und Mythos'' (). It appeared as an essay in a 1979 anthology named after the colloquium, published by
Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature.
History
The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...
. It was included in Marquard's essay collection ''Farewell to Matters of Principle'' (german: Abschied vom Prinzipiellen), which was published in German by
Reclam
Reclam Verlag is a German publishing house, established in Leipzig in 1828 by Anton Philipp Reclam (1807–1896).[Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...]
, and in ''Zukunft braucht Herkunft'' (), published by Reclam in 2003 as a selection of Marquard's most important texts.
Marquard continued his arguments in the text "Aufgeklärter Polytheismus—auch eine politische Theologie?" () which was published in a 1983 anthology about the legacy of Schmitt. He discussed his views on polytheism as a requisite for freedom and individuality in the 1988 essay "Sola divisione individuum—Betrachtung über Individuum und Gewaltenteilung" (), which was presented at the 13th colloquium of the research group .
Reception
"In Praise of Polytheism" is cited in many German philosophical works but has been at the centre of discussion and controversy. According to
Burkhard Gladigow, the opposition it faced became intense because Marquard proposed polytheism as a political solution. Gladigow wrote that the strong reaction to the subject resulted from a
eurocentric
Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism)
is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world ...
and academic perspective, because among the world's population, only a minority adheres to nominally monotheistic religions. Within even those religions, monotheism is only one of several elements that inform the religious practice.
In 1983, Taubes published a response to "In Praise of Polytheism" where he wrote that Marquard should ask himself if he had not outlined a "philosophical choreography" for present-day "
''Kosmiker''"; with this he referred to a group of
mystics
A mystic is a person who practices mysticism, or a reference to a mystery, mystic craft, first hand-experience or the occult.
Mystic may also refer to:
Places United States
* Mistick, an old name for parts of Malden and Medford, Massachusetts
* ...
and
neopagans
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...
with
blood and soil tendencies, active in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
at the turn of the 20th century. Taubes said the essay produces a mythical mindset rather than describes one, and that "recourses to myth post Christum are really just repetitions of
Julian's
apostasy
Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...
". He connected Marquard's project to
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist (; ; born 11 December 1943) – also known as Fabrice Laroche, Robert de Herte, David Barney, and other pen names – is a French journalist and political philosopher, a founding member of the Nouvelle Droite ("New Right"), and ...
's book ''On Being a Pagan'' (1981) and thereby associated it with the neopaganism of the
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
''
Nouvelle Droite
The Nouvelle Droite (; en, "New Right"), sometimes shortened to the initialism ND, is a far-right political movement which emerged in France during the late 1960s. The Nouvelle Droite is at the origin of the wider European New Right (ENR). Vario ...
'' movement in France.
Taubes dismissed the idea that polytheism is the seed to the individual and the separation of powers. He pointed to the
neo-Kantian
In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the "thin ...
philosopher
Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen (4 July 1842 – 4 April 1918) was a German Jewish philosophy, philosopher, one of the founders of the University of Marburg, Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish ph ...
, who argued that the ego or soul originated with a development away from the "mythico-tragic view" of polytheism, and that this can be observed in
Ezekiel 18. , a sociologist working in the tradition of the
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
, critiqued "In Praise of Polytheism" in 2007 and also rejected Marquard's argument about polytheism. Faber described the polytheism of ancient Greece as a self-destructive "oligotheism"—a theological
oligarchy
Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...
—that was destined to fail, and wrote that "pluralism has long become
integralism
In politics, integralism, integrationism or integrism (french: intégrisme) is an interpretation of Catholic social teaching that argues for an authoritarian and anti- pluralist Catholic state, wherever the preponderance of Catholics within t ...
(or rather:
corporatism
Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests. The ...
)".
Faber compared "In Praise of Polytheism" to Blumenberg's book ''Work on Myth'' (1979) and wrote that Marquard, by openly embracing polytheism as
political pluralism, "explicates what Blumenberg only implies". In 2016,
Stefanie von Schnurbein
Baroness Stefanie Anna Hildegard von Schnurbein (born 24 June 1961 in Augsburg) is a German literary scholar, and Professor of Modern Scandinavian Literature at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Biography
She belongs to the Schnurbein family, ori ...
grouped Marquard's essay with texts written by
Botho Strauß
Botho Strauß (; born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist and essayist.
Biography
Botho Strauß's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauß studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Col ...
and
Martin Walser
Martin Walser (; born 24 March 1927) is a German writer.
Life
Walser was born in Wasserburg am Bodensee, on Lake Constance. His parents were coal merchants, and they also kept an inn next to the train station in Wasserburg. He described the e ...
in the 1990s. She wrote that the three authors share a "
post-modern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
,
post-structuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
and
post-colonial
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...
impulse, which posits a logic of difference against a unifying, colonializing logic of sameness". Due to the nationalist implications of Strauß' and Walser's texts, Schnurbein wrote that "Taubes' early critique of Marquard is not as far-fetched or one-sided as it might have seemed at the moment of its publication in 1983".
From a Christian perspective, the Roman Catholic theologian wrote his 1998 doctoral dissertation as a response to Marquard's writings about polytheism and monotheism. Halbmayr argued that the separation of powers that Marquard requests can be found in the Christian concept of the Trinity, and that Marquard engages in wishful thinking when he presents polytheism as a guarantee for freedom. Halbmayr called for resumed critical discussions about
hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...
and
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...
within the theology and philosophy of history, where the separation of powers should be kept in mind. The Lutheran theologian
Klaus Koch
Klaus Koch (October 4, 1926 – March 28, 2019) was an Old Testament scholar.
Koch first studied in the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and later at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He did his doctoral dissertation at the Ruprec ...
wrote that "In Praise of Polytheism" is written in a "noble-philosophical diction" with the effect that "you don't know to what extent the matter is meant as serious", or if Marquard had been inebriated when he conceived it.
See also
*
Criticism of rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy'' ...
*
Religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is an attitude or policy regarding the diversity of religious belief systems co-existing in society. It can indicate one or more of the following:
* Recognizing and tolerating the religious diversity of a society or countr ...
*
Secular paganism
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
*
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Further reading
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{{Refend
1978 speeches
1979 essays
Criticism of Christianity
Criticism of rationalism
Essays about politics
German essays
Monotheism
Philosophy essays
Philosophy lectures
Pluralism (philosophy)
Political philosophy literature
Political theology
Polytheism
Technical University of Berlin